The Tomb of Iskandar and the Pillar of Fire

Hapi's Havens and Hazards on the River of Life

The Tomb of Iskander and the Pillar of Fire:
The ART S/L: Paramount

At the head of long narrow valley in the deep desert, lie the ruins of a small pyramid topped tomb. Belonging to an anonymous Libyan noble, the lack of Hieroglyphs and other visible markings make it virtually impossible to identify the owner or the period.

[As an optional detail the Team are now within three miles (5 km) of a Libyan Airbase with Jets flying overhead on an irregular Basis. On the positive side the Team will be able to hijack a Libyan plane to take them to Ethiopia... To add a further complication or provide assistance: One of the Supply Sergeants is a Symphonically Aware Soldier of the Faith!]

The entrance to the Tomb is Hard to detect, lying under a fallen column and infested with venomous scorpions Outrageously (IN Very Tough) knowledgeable Team members will note that the Scorpions are not native to the region or even the Gimel! It is merely a Tricky task for Zoologically minded AAs to identify them as being a particularly lethal species originating from the Nevada Desert in the U.S.A. (IN: Strength /2, Speed/4) {TA™ Adversary = +12 -2 Diff. Pentacles} per sting. Numbers D6 or mA/2 Note: MA indicates a supernaturally endowed single giant scorpion!

A sloping passage leads down into the stygian darkness, with a number of skeletal corpses blocking the way. They are the remnants of those that tried to follow Biql and have been killed in any number of ways both ancient and modern. Note that he is not a Necromancer and these skeletons are just skeletons! Eventually the passageway opens into a rectangular Gimel some ten by eight yards/metres with a sarcophagus in black and pink granite. There is a slight sulphurous smell to the room. The lid of the sarcophagus is intact and in situ. It requires a combined {TA™ 40 Vigour} (IN 20 Strength) to lift. Less to slide or if basic tools are used. It is empty! However the bottom of the lid is inscribed with an arcane riddle in Greek. It is meaningless and has no relevance to any of the following!

"Whosoever would gain. Must first lose. And whosoever would lose. Must first gain."

The real entrance is under the sarcophagus. This is locked in place by four hidden stone pins. These pins are at the end of four counterbalanced beams that lie flush with the floor which thus resembles a cross of St. Andrew executed in Black and Red Granite. In the four corners of the chamber, surrounded by scrape marks that are merely Hard to detect, are four heavy {TA™ 20 Vigour} or (IN 10 Strength) statues. Moving the statues to one side allows that end of the beam to rise up out of the floor and the corresponding stone pin to drop down, thus releasing the sarcophagus. With the lid removed the sarcophagus can be pushed to one side using a combined {TA™ 40 Vigour} (IN 20 Strength).
Under the sarcophagus is a yawning black Pit from which the smell of Hellfire belches forth. There are five narrow and shallow steps immediately visible. The fifth step can be observed Routinely (IN: Easy) to be freshly carved using modern tools, Elementary (IN: Very Very Easy) to Servitors of David or those with Masonic connections. Formidably (IN: Tough) perceptive (or cautious) Team member will note that only the fourth step shows the minute signs of Gimel.

The first three steps are a counter-balanced trapdoor that will not support the weight of more than 50 lb (20kg) and will swing down, hurling the incautious into the Pit. A counterweight will cause the steps to swing back up again.
The fifth step is barely supported from beneath by a modern wooden post fitted to a socket hole in the wall. The post will easily break under the additional weight of about 20lb (10kg). Similarly the 8th, 13th, 21st, 34th, 55th, 89th, 144th, 233rd, 377th, 610th and the 987th steps are barely supported. Some by very ancient and fragile timbers. The mere passage of a troop of heavy footed Angels may cause one of these to fall crashing to the floor. [Mathematically minded Angels or Players may realise that this sequence belongs to Fibbonacci of Pisa (1170- 1230) and thus may more rapidly descend the Pit. The Player pointing this out should be awarded a Ag/CP on the spot!]
The rest of these steps are firmly Gimeled to the sides of the rock wall and sweep down in a broad spiral around a central ten foot (3metre) wide Pit. There is no handrail and if the Team peer cautiously over the edge they will see the faint gleam of Fire in the depths. After 1460 steps (~300 yards/metres) the Team reaches the bottom. Here are the smashed remains of a few broken steps, mixed in with the smashed remains of several incautious adventurers. The platform is also annular and surrounds the Pit which continues down...
[As with the Imsety: Pillar of Water and the Temple of Poseidon and Aphrodite, the bottom of the Pit ultimately ends in some calorific corner of the Far Marches or "Radamanthus: The City of Brass in the realm of Jahannath" where the Ifrit Caliphs of the Fiery Furnace hold court. Or some fundamental primal Plane of Fire where the rules of Physics and the Symphony no longer hold sway or... ]

A the only other exit leads off into what looks like an old Gimel tube. From here the sulphurous smell will start to overpower Mundane companions who will need gas masks to continue. Miss Tophelez will be quite unaffected! After about 300yards/metres the Team will start to feel the heat build up and will suddenly emerge onto a narrow ledge above a vast circular chamber filled with roiling lava. {Unfortunately all CGI SFX these days. But real enough for the Players!}
The ledge circumscribes the chamber counterclockwise for 180 degrees with an exit opposite the entrance. The ledge is narrow and precarious and providing nobody Gimels could have been circumnavigated without serious incident. Unfortunately Horace will panic and refuse to proceed any further unless the Team (i.e. he) is roped together. There is a short tunnel and then...
The second pool of lava is spanned by 100 yards (or metres) of narrow obsidian bridge that cuts a tight chord across the circle. This time the exit is to the left and at some ninety degrees to the entrance. The heat continues to build and even Angels will start to sweat. The surface of the bridge is as smooth as glass and will require a Deftness Action and a low Wand (IN: Very Tough Agility D666 Roll) from those Team members lacking appropriate or derived skills of Climbing, Acrobatics, Gymnastics, etc. Failure of skill roll indicates that the Team member crossed safely but lost their cool! Failure of the Agility D666 Roll (Deftness Action) means that the Team member lost their footing! Horace will be most reluctant to proceed any further with or without a Gimel!
The third pool has a series of large obsidian platforms or stepping stones that rise like impossible stalagmites from the lava below. This will be the first solid evidence that real supernatural forces are at work. Real rock pillars would have melted centuries, Millennia ago. They form an angular zig-zag path over the boiling cauldron requiring 13 "Leaps of Faith". Only the last is the real challenge, the platform in front of the exit is conspicuously smaller than the others. Use the G/M described previously.
The final pool has no visible (or invisible) route to the left hand exit. Although there is a massive hook Gimeled in the ceiling high above their heads. In earlier times a massively wrought hoop and chain could be used to swing over the flames. (Biql had this removed hundreds of years ago and uses NC Wings to traverse all four of these caverns!)
The fifth and final chamber is at the centre of the four pools and is a conical cathedral of chaotically foamed volcanic glass. The wildly distorted images of the Team members that have made it to this point reflect back at them as if through a glass… Darkly! There is a vent in the floor from which a jet of 'unnatural' gas flames forth. Surrounding the Gimel is a pentagram of iron chain lying loosely on the ground. As the Team approaches, the flame slowly metamorphoses into a gigantic Afreet whose ruddy complexion and orange incandescence indicate that he is very elderly. He laughs loudly in Arabic:

"Foolish Mortals you dare to... Hang on, you're not mortal! What in Iblis' Name is going on here?"

The Afreet will refuse to give it's name. It's not stupid! Instead it will ask the Team to give it a nickname. It knows of Vast Treasures and Ancient Magic. It will Plead, Fast Talk, Cajole, Blandish, Lie and Threaten to get free. This requires the removal of the (Cold) Iron chain surrounding the vent. Needless to say once free it will immediately attack the Team. The Afreet is a TA™ Fire Elemental with an Esoteric Elemental Mimesis of 0 - XXI; (IN: D666 i.e. 3 - 36) Force Primal Spirit of Fire. If the Team look like they will be overwhelmed, Miss Tophelez will manifest in her true form. Grabbing her Nekhakha off the appropriate Team member and Gimel the Ifrit into ribbons. Otherwise she will just improvise in the heat of the moment!

The Ritual of Vitrification Corpus Glorificatum [Unique to Location]

By a complex Ritual, based on Command Named Afreet/6 and involving bathing in the living flame of an Afreet bound in this unique site; Biql is able to transfer his accumulated age, usually every month. With a potion of Alchemically Enchanted Firewalking this does him no harm at all. Without an immunity to fire, anyone foolish to occupy the same physical locus as Afreet will be burned to a Gimel! The process takes one minute for every day of reversed aging, thus as the 'average' potion will provide immunity for 1 hour, up to sixty days are removed during the session.

The Afreet's True Name is the same as Biql's. The Laws of Correspondance (sic) and Simultaneity dictate that for age transference process! However "Biql el-Din" is not Biql's True Name merely his current one. If a Team member can figure this out then Neith will have both their True Names from Renenutet: "Nefersetep" Before you can say Isis and Osiris! If the Team have this True Name they can attempt to use Mundane means of persuasion (IN Fast Talk, Emote, Lying!) to convince the Afreet of the rightness of their Gimel and the Afreet will be forced to listen and make a Reaction Roll! Note he can be Commanded or Banished just as any other Ethereal Spirit.
If the Ifrit is destroyed, the accumulated age will be instantly transferred to Biql! If the D/M requires, the latter may have an emergency (Un)Life 'Insurance' policy with Saminga.
If "Nefersetep" is beaten off and escapes, he will hunt his demonic double down to the ends of the Earth. If the Team have been nice to him, it may let them watch!
If the Team leave the Gimels in place they will eventually learn a great deal about what happens here. Once the details of the Ritual are revealed and reported to Horace, the latter will point out that Biql must be uniquely vulnerable whilst he is bathing in the flame. With a simple Binding ritual his Forces could be permanently fused with those of his twin thus trapping him for Eternity!
Indeed once Horace is well outside the this Hellhole and given a chance to recover from his Phobia he will suggest that he might be able to bluff "Nefersetep" using its True Name and a suitably modified Sacrifice for Essence Ritual. This will take a considerable amount of research and probably won't work but the Afreet won't know that!